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Recently installed WiiSX, few HDD questions

Heya, folks. I could use some help with my HDD, as I'm moving into unexplored territory, here.

Awhile back, I got a 250GB portable HDD that was mainly intended for transferring and housing my Wii library for the obvious convenience. That said, Dios Mios USB compatibility has come about since then, and I've recently messed with (and enjoyed) WiiSX, however I have a few questions.

When I attempt to use the USB HDD with my laptop, I can only access it with WBFS. I can't access it using Windows explorer, for instance. I assume this is due to something called partitions? That's the unexplored territory I mentioned earlier. If I want to put PSX, Wii and GCN ISOs on my HDD and have the latter two run through WiiFlow and the first through WiiSX, do I need separate partitions for each system/ISO type? If someone could explain that to me in layman's terms, I'd deeply appreciate it.

As it is, I have an 80GB laptop HDD and about 100GB of backed up Wii games, so I know I'll have to get rid of some before the HDD format, unfortunately, but I'm out of room with my 16GB SD Card as far as more simple emulation goes for cartridge based gaming.

My only other question would be... is there a WiiSX channel forwarder anywhere? I'd like it for convenience for my girlfriend, so she doesn't have to mess with the HBC (and me for that matter, lol).

If your HDD is formatted in WBFS format only certain programs can access it (WBFS Manager and, IMO, the superior Wii Backup Manager), GameCube games via DIOS MIOS will not work unless you have them on the primary active partition and said partition is set to 32kb clusters. In my opinion it's better to just format the HDD you use for Wii to FAT32, you can still make all your Wii games be in .wbfs format but this way here you don't need several partitions as virtually all Homebrew apps work very well with FAT32 (I've yet to find one that doesn't actually). As for the WiiSX forwarder channel, yes, there is one. At the moment I can't recall we're to find it (I think there may be several), I'll see if I can find the one I saw and edit this post with the link.

Also, about your question about separating the ISOs I believe WiiFlow allows you to tell it where to look for your Wii and GC games so you could just make a GameCube folder for GC games and leave the Wii games in the WBFS folder Wii Backup Manager creates as long as you tell WiiFlow to look at those spots for GC and Wii games respectively (as long as the inside GameCube you have a subfolder for each game titled with the games ID...ie: GZLE01 for Zelda Wind Waker. DIOS MIOS requires the games be setup as /Games/GameID/Game.iso...for more info on that consult the DIOS MIOS guide here on WiiHacks). WiiSX ISOs must be put in /wiisx/isos, that is the only place WiiSX will check for the PSX ISOs. They can be stored on SD, USB or even DVD because when you click "Load ISO" it will ask you which device to look for and, as said, /wiisx/isos is the only folder it will at.

1 User Says Thank You SNES_Master For This Useful Post

Thank you SO much for the detailed post, SNES_Master. I appreciate all the explanations you did and dumbing it down for me. XD

Anyway, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask your advice. As I said, when I plug in my Wii HDD, my computer asks to format before using it and all I can do is access it via WBFS Manager. If I format it to use WBFS with it (or switch to Wii Backup Manager if that's preferred) and put PSX and GCN ISOs on it, do you suggest even fiddling with partitions?

All my apps, emulators, homebrew and other things are on a 16GB SD Card and that works just fine. Even WiiFlow is on my SD Card while my Wii games are on my HDD and I have no problems. I put my GCN ISOs on there as well in exactly the way you said, each individual folder, on the 16GB SD Card, but could only fit 11 of my favorites out of my collection, lol.

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to explain all that to me. As well as for the channel forwarder. Honestly I was just looking for a yes or no, then I'd search for one, so I greatly appreciate you taking the time to find it for me, too.

Try wbfs2fatit does not delete the games you will not lose any games, I use it and I did not lose any games and the wii games and HB stuff all work perfect after wbfs2fatpywbfs2fat

for dios mios you need FAT32 with 32KB cluster size so after you convert it to FAT32 check the cluster size, if it is 64KB use Acronis Disk Director 11 Advanced to change the cluster from 64KB to 32KB cluster it is very quick, you could also use MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional Edition to change the cluster size, I did not lose any data and it is very fast also and the games work perfect after

I only have one partition and only use this HDD for and with WBFS. I would check what the name of the partition is called, but I've ran into a really weird unrelated problem now... >.>

When I plug my HDD into my laptop, in the same USB that I just did yesterday, it recognizes it with a sound but won't appear otherwise. It won't ask to format it, won't appear under My Computer and won't even appear with WBFS Manager. Still works just fine with my Wii, though. And, up until today it worked fine with my laptop... last thing I did with it on my laptop was delete 3 Wii games with WBFS Manager. :/

I even tried different cables and I still get the notification sound that something was plugged in, but the laptop just won't recognize the HDD, now.

Also, thanks for the response candylove, I'll look into those as well.

Yeah, that's the main reason I stopped using WBFS Manager with the drive as WBFS and switched to Wii Backup Manager and formatted the drive to FAT32. WBFS isn't recognized by windows and will ask to format, you have to use a program that knows how to view it. It's also been my experience that WBFS, in addition to only allowing you store Wii games (whereas FAT32 can store anything), can sometimes corrupt itself.

I only have one partition and only use this HDD for and with WBFS. I would check what the name of the partition is called, but I've ran into a really weird unrelated problem now... >.>

When I plug my HDD into my laptop, in the same USB that I just did yesterday, it recognizes it with a sound but won't appear otherwise. It won't ask to format it, won't appear under My Computer and won't even appear with WBFS Manager. Still works just fine with my Wii, though. And, up until today it worked fine with my laptop... last thing I did with it on my laptop was delete 3 Wii games with WBFS Manager. :/

I even tried different cables and I still get the notification sound that something was plugged in, but the laptop just won't recognize the HDD, now.

Also, thanks for the response candylove, I'll look into those as well.

go to start
right click on my computer
click on manage
then click on storage
then click on disk management
then right click on your device and select add letters and path
window will pop up then click on add
then select a Letter and click on ok

1 User Says Thank You candylove For This Useful Post

You two are a godsend, lol. All this homebrew stuff makes me feel so dumb... -.-

candylove, love you! That fixed my problem. I thought maybe my laptop just didn't want to fraternize with this HDD anymore... lol. What would cause the external device to drop an assigned drive like that? Is that something that just happens? Anyway, thanks again. I really appreciate it.

SNES_Master, now that I got it fixed (again thanks to candylove), it says my Wii HDD has a single partition, file type RAW, 232GB free yadda yadda yadda.

Thanks again, you two, for the help.

EDIT: Used wbfs2fat and was able to access my HDD without all the hubbub of it asking me to format. Wii games are still intact, thanks again candylove for the vote of confidence and I attempted to transfer over the GameCube folder I had. It still works on the SD Card, and its set up Games/GameID/Game.iso, but on the HDD WiiFlow will recognize the titles, then loads the GCN game in my disc slot.

I have DML installed just as it was when I had it running from the SD Card and NeoGamma with no settings changed. So is this where I need to get a newer version of Dios Mios, or what? The version I have now is the same as when I first installed it back in May... so I haven't really fiddled too much with updating, etc.

Meanwhile, copying the wiisx/iso folder (and folders that go along with it) from the SD over to the HDD made WiiSX state that there was an error opening the directory. Would I need the WiiSX emulator on the HDD along with the ISO folder? Or, can one be on the HDD and the other on the SD?

I don't know what cluster size it is, at the moment. Need to check that out (of course I don't know how, heh).

For your GC errors you need to get DIOS MIOS, it is similar to DML but it loads via USB & SD whereas DML can do ONLY SD. For DM you will need to eject the disc from the drive and set up some settings so that your USB loader of choice can find and load the games (check the DIOS MIOS Guide here on WiiHacks for all the details). As for WiiSX giving an error it sounds to me like you have the wrong version, the last official release accidentally broke USB support but someone recompiled it and added USB 2.0 back in. You can keep WiiSX in SD/apps/wiisx. That is were I have mine and it works (never thought I'd see the day when I could play Gran Tourismo and Dragon Ball GT Final Bout on a Nintendo system ). You can get the recompiled version of WiiSX here (as well as Wii64 recompiled, both had broken USB support):